This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real.

They stumble upon the Dark Library and discover secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies. Father forbids them from ever entering the room again, but when Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is drawn back to the Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life… Read more.

Determined to save Konrad, Victor, along with his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry, scale the highest trees in Strumwald, dive into the deepest lakes, and even make an unthinkable sacrifice in their quest for the elixir’s ingredients. And as if their task was not complicated enough, a new realm of danger—that of illicit love—threatens to end the ordeal in tragedy.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Ableism, including the Disabled Villain trope
  • Sexual assault*
  • Incest*
  • Parental abandonment & child neglect mentioned
  • Serious illness of a child
  • Medical treatment & procedures, including consensual amputation
  • Needles
  • Emesis
  • Death of a brother
  • Animal death
  • Animal attack

* Explanation : There are two on-page sexual assault scenes, including one where the main character pretends to be his identical twin to trick his brother’s girlfriend into kissing him, and another where he forces a kiss on her. The romance subplot involves a love triangle between the two Frankenstein twins and their cousin.

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Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis book cover

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something. Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Rape & attempted rape recounted, and forced sex work (off-page)
  • Child abuse & intimate partner violence recounted
  • Suicide (on-page) & suicidal ideation
  • Pregnancy & childbirth (on-page), including stillbirth (on-page)
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies, graphic physical injuries & illness (cholera, seizures, fever), field surgery, and syringes & needles
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother & father
  • Death of a brother
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Blackmail
  • Fire
  • Drought including death from starvation & dehydration
  • Death from exposure
  • Military deployment recounted
  • Animal death & death of a pet (on-page), including hunting & animal dead bodies
  • Animal cruelty

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to Mister, a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Cultural appropriation, specifically Native American culture
  • Domestic violence
  • Physical, verbal & emotional abuse, including gaslighting
  • Rape, statutory rape & rape of a child
  • Incest (father-daughter)
  • Pregnancy, result of rape & incest
  • Forced estrangement
  • Cheating
  • Self-harm
  • Disordered eating (bingeing)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Female genital mutilation mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Lynching recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence mentioned
  • Death of a mother
  • Death of an infant

Lover Awakened by JR Ward

Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror is his only passion—until he rescues a beautiful aristocrat from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for one another begins to overtake them both, Zsadist’s thirst for vengeance against Bella’s tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now, Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past, and find a future with her… 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slavery & sex slavery
  • Rape
  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood depiction, including blood-drinking
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Torture
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Whipping
  • Bullying
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Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

Growing up poor in rural Georgia, Bree Cabbat was warned by her single mother that the world was a dark and scary place. Having married into a family with wealth and connections, Bree now has all a woman could ever dream of: a loving lawyer husband, two talented teenage daughters, a new baby boy, a gorgeous home, and every opportunity in the world.

Until the day she awakens and sees an old gray-haired woman peering into her bedroom window who vanishes as quickly as she appears. She spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daugh­ters’ private school . . . just minutes before Bree’s infant son, asleep in his car seat only a few feet away, vanishes. There is a note left in his place, warning her that she is being is being watched; if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police or deviate in any way from the instructions that will follow.

To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small—but critical—task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price, making her complicit in a tangled web of tragedy and shocking secrets that could destroy everything she loves.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Slut shaming
  • Rape
  • Incest
  • Nonconsensual pornography
  • Substance addiction
  • Overdose
  • Poisoning
  • Infanticide, attempted and threats of infanticide, central theme
  • Drugging of infants
  • Drowning of an infant
  • Bombs
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping and child abduction
  • Blackmail
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Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse. It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal. But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new. Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical misogyny
  • Sexual assault of a minor & statutory rape mentioned*
  • Depression mentioned
  • Suicide, suicidal ideation & suicide pacts discussed
  • Minor blood & gore depiction, including dead bodies
  • Gun violence
  • War themes, including refugee experiences & displacement

*Context : Mentions of sex between a seventeen-year-old girl and an adult man.

The Disasters by M. K. England

The Disasters by M. K. England

The Disasters by M. K. England book cover

Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.

But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.

On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.

They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Transmisia recounted
  • Ableism recounted
  • Child abuse
  • Anxiety
  • Anxiety/panic attacks, on-page
  • Nightmares
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Nonconsensual drugging
  • Blood depiction
  • Physical injuries
  • Serious injury to a loved one
  • Hospital
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Plane crash
  • Car crash
  • Wrongful imprisonment
  • Colonialism themes
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World After by Susan Ee

World After by Susan Ee

World After by Susan Ee book cover

When a group of people capture Penryn’s sister Paige, thinking she’s a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken. Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels’ secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go. Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can’t rejoin the angels, can’t take his rightful place as… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & sexism (on-page)
  • Parent with paranoid schizophrenia with mentions of hallucinations & delusions
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction, including body horror, dead bodies, involuntary body modifications, medical experimentations, and cannibalism
  • Torture & psychological torture (on-page)
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun & sword violence
  • Physical assault
  • Imprisonment
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Explosions
  • Building collapse recounted

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee book cover

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel. Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Sexual harassment & sex work, implied
  • Parental abandonment recounted
  • Parent with paranoid schizophrenia with mentions of delusions and hallucinations
  • Nightmares
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Graphic blood and injury depiction, including dead bodies and body parts, cannibalism, dismemberment, scars, human experimentation, and nonconsensual body modification (theme)
  • Death of children discussed
  • Murder and attempted murder
  • Knife & gun violence
  • Physical assault
  • Torture
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • War themes
  • Animal attack

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Also called His Majesty’s Dragon.

Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson’s navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancée, society’s esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Minor sex work shaming & slurs
  • Suicide*
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Recreational drug use (smoking)
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a colleague (off-page)
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Bombings
  • War themes (Napoleonic Wars)
  • Military violence & naval warfare
  • Animal death (graphic, multiple scenes)
  • Animal cruelty & abuse
  • Animal illness & injury
  • Animal attack
  • Death of an animal companion

*Note: An enemy air force captain chooses to stay on-board his dying dragon as it falls & plummets into the ocean.

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